Miroir aux Alouettes
by Belphegor
Summary: Okay people, here's a French girl's 1st attempt to a story. Some time after Halloween 1981, Remus Lupin ponders the treacherous quality of friendship.


Miroir aux Alouettes

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Miroir aux Alouettes

Author's note: here it is. My first fanfic ever posted on Fanfiction.net. How scary. I wrote this directly in English, it's quite short, a first attempt, so now I put my life into your hands, hoping you will make a good use of it… sorry, new writer's stress. A "miroir aux alouettes" is a lure used to hunt game birds, "une alouette" is a lark. The hunter lures game birds into a trap using a sort of mirror that makes the bird think there's another bird in front of him… Sorry for this long explanation, but anyway – just enjoy!

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Disclaimer: every character or situation you recognise doesn't belong to me, so Remus Lupin doesn't either, too bad. But can I say that his musings are mine? Dunno. Don't sue me for that anyway…

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Remus Lupin was gazing upon the sky, waiting for the moon to rise. Not that it would be full that night – he had two weeks left before full moon.

No.

Just to face the moon peacefully. And sunset was his favourite moment of the day, along with dawn – because of the blending of lights and shades. 

Honestly, that was beautiful. This sunset really turned the landscape into a sort of postcard-like way, the soft light colouring everything with pastel shades, the few clouds, the sky, the slightly undulating ground. The sun had set five minutes ago though, but that odd, soft light was left, as if it would be the last remaining of the glorious sunlight there had been a few minutes before. Around east, the sky was a velvet dark, deep blue, but as you looked along to west, it was getting lighter and lighter; where the sun had been the sky was now a very light shade of blue, a shade he had recognised at once. He once knew two eyes of this very tone – a very light blue, going darker when their owner was under deep emotion. Light blue eyes that used to glitter with joy and mischief. 

As a result, Remus was reminded of two other pairs of eyes – green this time, both of them. Dark, deep forest-green eyes, and sparkling, emerald-like green ones. These three pairs of eyes were engraved in his memory in such a way that thinking of one always reminded him of the others.

Sirius', and James', and Lily's.

Now they were just figures from the past, all of them. James and Lily had been dead for almost a year now. Peter was dead, too. And Sirius, whose eyes seemed to have been poured up into this sky just to remind Remus of him, Sirius was as good as dead.

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Peter…

Now thinking of him, Remus couldn't help but wonder actually what colour his eyes were. The four of them – James, Lily, Sirius and Remus himself – had quite unusual colour of eyes, even surprising sometimes for Lily and Sirius; but what about Peter? Grey brown, Remus thought after a second of reflection. Yes, that must be it. Peter had grey brown, watery little eyes, reminding the rest of the Marauders of his Animagus form. Quite common eyes, Peter used to think. James would tell him you couldn't tell a man from the colour of his eyes. Poor Peter. Always looking scared when he didn't seem to have a reason for. And he finally showed his bravery, maddened by grief and anger; he stood against a former friend, far more skilled and powerful than himself, and died. Poor Peter. Poor Wormtail. 

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What did happen to you, Padfoot? How comes you, yet having the strongest reasons to hate him, who weren't scared even facing him and saying his name unlike many wizards and witches around us, how comes you were the one who sold Lily and James to Voldemort? You were James' best friend, even closer than a brother would be, we all saw that, and I was the first… I even know you exchanged your bloods once. How could you betray your blood brother? How could you betray our Lily, our flower, our light? And how could you betray your own godson? 

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Because he would have been killed too if what happened didn't happened, Remus thought bitterly. _He betrayed them; he as good as killed them… He meant to… Oh, God…_

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Is it actually the same person I'm thinking of now? Am I thinking of the Sirius Black I knew at school, the one that used to glance around mischievously for each Hogwarts girl except Slytherin, until he finally met his match? The one who kept pulling pranks at Snape and occasionally at Lucius Malfoy? The one always laughing, always joking, always knowing how to cheer me up whenever I was sad or tired?

But these times were over now. Those school times, marauding around Hogwarts, carefree, thoughtless, free… All gone. Everything he loved. He was the only one left – the last of the Marauders.

He stifled a bitter chuckle. They used to wonder who'd be the last of them, once the rest settled down, or dead, though Sirius would say it meant the same for him. That was back in the time where friendship and trust meant something to him. Back in the time where friendship and trust just meant something.

That bond, that very friendship had been so strong that now the hole it had left in Remus' heart was huge. Like a continuous cold wind. As if he had his own personal Dementor gliding along behind him, step by step.

How stupid he'd been to think friendship would last forever! A schoolboy friendship usually lasts only school days; yet the Marauders had stayed together quite a while after Hogwarts – only to be shattered when one of the strongest and most trustworthy ones turned traitor.

They always say that unlike love, friendship lasts ages.

And he had fallen for it. But it was just an illusion, a lure – 

An odd French expression suddenly crossed Remus Lupin's mind.

_ Le miroir aux alouettes_. 

Yes, that was it. The meaning was definitely there – an illusion to lure game birds into a hunting trap.

Friendship was just a lure.

Un miroir aux alouettes. 

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Thanks to Steph, Gracie and Jo for putting with my daily new author's

anguishes, I have wonderful penpals and I'm aware of it. Thanks.

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Now I promise a bit more next time – hoping there'll be a next time!

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Love from Belphégor~the Weird One!~ :o]

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